New Book from Group Endorsed by Daniel Pipes and Richard Perle Calls for "Theopolitics"
Richard Bartholomew printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:51:57 AM EST
As I've discussed previously, the Jerusalem Summit brings together neo-conservatives like Daniel Pipes and Baroness Cox with Christian Zionists like Mike Evans and members of the Israeli right such as Benyamin Netanyahu. Based in Jerusalem, it holds meetings in various parts of the world (such as South Africa and Japan), and is bankrolled by the controversial Uzbek billionaire Michael Cherney. The director is Dmitry Radyshevsky.

The Jerusalem Summit takes a hard line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Radyshevsky has now published a short book, Universal Zionism, which gives the theological underpinning to the organisation's thinking. It is available for free from the Jerusalem Summit's website, as a Word document (hence I give no page numbers). Radyshevsky calls for a "theopolitics" with which to oppose Islam:

Indeed, one must feel gratitude to Islam, for it will force the pseudo-liberals to understand that a radical separation of church and state is no less pernicious than the radical unification of the two in Islamic theocracies

The book argues that Islam is following on from the work of Communism and Nazism, but that Israel will defeat the ideology through its "universal" and spiritual significance - as long there is no compromise with "Amalek".
Radyshevsky explains:

For the third time this century, the Adversary has harnessed the Pharaonic chariots of totalitarian ideology, hoping to deprive humankind of its spiritual freedom. First it was a red chariot - Communism; next, it was brown - Nazism; and now, green - Islam... Islam today has surpassed "the long arm of Moscow" and gained a foothold everywhere, sowing death on every side, from the Philippines to New York, from Moscow to South Africa.

...A death wish accompanied by homosexuality of SS and death cult of Nazi doctrine in Germany, Communist asceticism in the Socialist camp, and a longing for death on the part of Islamic jihadists are all the very essence of the Adversary, who strives to put an end to Creation, and to life.

Nice gratuitous reference to homosexuality there. Radyshevsky's (not particularly original) thesis is that there are two paths in the world: the "Path of Jerusalem", which is God's plan to bring about global unity, and the "Path of Babylon", which is Satan's (who is described as "God's ape") plan sow division while preaching unity through false doctrine. Further, the way God brings about the true path to unity is through the essential nature of the Jews:

Instead of the primacy of a single, monolithic ideology, the Jew with his Shema insists on the primacy of conscience, on hearing God's voice in man's free heart... Instead of Nazi Ordung, Soviet pravoporyadok, or Islamic sharia, the Jew strives for liberation from the spirit of Egyptian slavery that survives in every totalitarian ideology.

This Jewish striving naturally includes "The visionaries of the early twentieth century...- from Herzl to Jabotinsky". While rejecting the idea that Holocaust victims were being punished for sin, Radyshevsky still argues that they brought it all on themselves:

God created the Jews to fulfill a universal spiritual mission. If they refuse to exert themselves and to realize that mission, they become superfluous and die off, like any bodily organ that ceases to perform its designated function. God's mission - more precisely, the horrible perversion of that mission ("God's ape" mentioned earlier) - is then taken up instead by the Adversary, whose first task is to amputate Judaism, now "dried and withered." The pain of the knife then compels that organ to remember its calling, and to begin functioning anew.

...The Holocaust, then, was necessary in order to preserve the soul of Judaism. The gas ovens consumed (or, more precisely, weakened) both the ghetto mentality and the assimilationist mentality, thus liberating the Jewish soul for a new ascent - the creation of the State of Israel - in order to advance the world to a new, unprecedented level of consciousness.

However, and rather bizarrely given his rejection of the idea of Holocaust victims as sinners:

As for the souls of the Nazis: they, no doubt, have been reborn in Kampuchea, Rwanda, or Kosovo, to be themselves victims of genocide, to atone for their own sins.

The mystical purpose of Israel and Zionism is then explained in terms of pop-Hegelism:

The solution that Israel will show the world consists not in the wide dissemination of form (democracy), but in the penetration of its actual essence into the very depths of the individual and of society. The essence we mean is an integrated consciousness, imbuing the West's civilized forms with a thirst for the spiritual values of the East, while channeling the East's religious zeal into humanitarian, constructive civilized forms...The culmination of that History will be the creation of a perfect social organism - a unique spiritual-political construction that will realize the Eastern ideal of a community of love, while preserving Western human rights and personal freedoms.

The only small snag is that "Unfortunately..., Israel today is very far from understanding its new Mission." Things then get rather mystical:

Human evolution can be viewed as a process of harnessing increasingly more powerful energies: from sexual energy, to mechanical, to thermal, to electrical, and finally - atomic energy.

But it does not stop there. After those comes mastery of the most powerful energy: spiritual (or, if you prefer - mental-psychical) energy... What will save Israel is not mastery of nanotechnology, but mastering the technologies of creativity through the spirit. What has long been known by only a select coterie of kabbalists must now move from the realm of esoterica to exoterica.

Like the laws of physics, every schoolchild must understand the laws of spiritual science regarding proper goal orientation (teleology) and proper focus of will (known in the Kabbalah as kavvanah). A sufficiently powerful creative mindset, when fortified by steadfast determination, will invariably be realized concretely.

...The universal soul is a kind of magical crystal, divided into seventy distinct segments, each representing one of the seventy nations...Israel is a small diamond of seventy facets, each of which is particularly close to one of the nations' seventy facets.

After much rambling along these lines, the rather bland punchline is that Israel contains immigrants from around the world, and so could show the world how to get along. There's also a further reference to "the hidden powers of human consciousness and psychic energy". A call for some political reforms in Israel follow until, at last, we get to the meat - his analysis of Islam and the Palestinians. He begins rather obscurely:

"I‑Slam" is the demon which possesses Islam and compels it to abuse all peoples indiscriminately.

Freud then gets a look-in:

The Islamic world consists of hundreds of millions of men tormented by two basic instincts: sex and murder, Eros and Thanatos. Sharia, which suppresses that first passion, sublimates it completely in the second, and -- as luck would have it -- global jihad provides the opportunity. While the consciousness of these unlucky slaves of I-Slam is subjugated totally to the sword and the phallus, at the very bottom of that consciousness lives a yearning to be rescued from that yoke. Moreover, the more savage that consciousness becomes, the more savage and impassioned is the subconscious yearning for liberation.

But what about the Palestinians?

...countries that demand that we create a state of Philistines in Judea and Samaria and hamper Jewish progress - on which their very own well-being likewise depends - are in fact only seeking to perpetuate the fragmentation and diabolization of humankind.

...Not for naught do the Palestinians of our day call themselves "Philistines". While not consanguineous descendants of the ancient Philistines (despite their pseudo-historians' futile attempts to convince us otherwise), they are the spiritual descendants of Goliath. They have resurrected not only the Philistine hatred of Israel, but also the ancient Philistine abomination of performing human sacrifices, particularly child sacrifices: preparing their young boys for shahada, a sacrifice on the altar of the new Moloch, the jihad.

In other words, resolving this conflict peaceably by reaching a compromise with Evil and agreeing to co-exist with it, is equally impossible as co-existing with Nazism was.

So what's to be done? Radyshevsky rejects the standard "transfer" solution of the Israeli far-right, and instead lays out the Jerusalem Summit approach, which we've seen before: offer Palestinians money to leave, allow them to remain as non-citizens in a "municipal enclave", or allow them to become citizens if they can prove loyalty (Radyshevskey is opposed to racial exclusivity):

This land is our land. Ishmael here has no claim, but if he will acknowledge Israel's dominion over this tiny land, then we will be very happy to let him remain.

However, it is also hoped that the Palestinians will be transformed:

Israel must consistently integrate the Palestinians into the civilization of the House of Abraham. This means a steady deprogramming of the Palestinians, whose youngest generation has been brainwashed by Arafat's propaganda machine and the jihad ideology for thirteen years since Oslo - all with Israeli and Western funds!

Israel and the West must establish control over education, the mass media, and the clergy.

...It is difficult of course to imagine that the age of Islamic Zionism is near. But a mere fifty years ago it would have seemed fantastical to think that someday there would be hundreds of millions of Christian Zionists -- as there are in the world today.

We're also told that

The Jerusalem Summit's recommendations have earned the enthusiastic acclaim of many of the world's social and spiritual activists, from members of the United States Congress and the British Parliament's House of Lords, to the Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Dalai Lama.

The book also contains standard musings on the dangers of Muslims in Europe, and calls for a "Council of Civilizations" based in Jerusalem.

Radyshevsky divides the world into twelve "primary civilizations", and declares this to be "likely" to be an omen, since there are twelve gates into Jerusalem and twelve tribes of Israel. This seems to me to be symptomatic of the main problem with the whole book: there's a sheen of general knowledge, but everything is run through the grinder of one mystical idea. Of course it all fits together wonderfully - because everything is defined according to Radyshevsky's predetermined political and religious agenda. Although ranging widely through history and across geopolitics, there is very little real engagement with what people believe or why - and despite his supposed opposition to the "primacy of a single, monolithic ideology", all he has to offer is a rather eccentric grand narrative which he imposes over all human motivation. If Palestinians object to living under occupation, there's no need to ascribe real human desires to their complaints: rather, we can diagnose morbid psycho-spiritual reasons which also just so happen to show that Radyshevsky's Greater-Israel Zionism is the exactly the same thing as the will of God.

Radyshevsky's book is far from unique: Hal Lindsey, Mike Evans, and a whole slew of Christian Zionist paperbacks have a similar Manichean perspective. Unlike those books, however, Radyshevsky's religious Jewish Zionism does not require the intellectual incoherence of pushing America to be active in the Middle East when God is about to wrap things up through an inevitable Last Days scenario anyway. But how acceptable will this be to the summit's main allies, the evangelical Christian Zionists? Talk of kabbalah and "psychic energy" will not play well, and he also writes that

After the inevitable victory over Islam, mankind will understand the prohibition of considering any one religion exclusive.

While some evangelical Christian Zionists see validity in Judaism through the idea of a "dual covenant", this will be pushing things too far (although, of course, there are also non-evangelical Christian Zionists who may be more agreeable). In this context, calls for a world council based in Jerusalem may even stoke Last Days paranoia...




Display:
Anything that Daniel Pipes endorses bears close scrutiny.  I don't think most Americans understand just how extreme some of these allies are:

But what about the Palestinians?

...countries that demand that we create a state of Philistines in Judea and Samaria and hamper Jewish progress - on which their very own well-being likewise depends - are in fact only seeking to perpetuate the fragmentation and diabolization of humankind.
...Not for naught do the Palestinians of our day call themselves "Philistines". While not consanguineous descendants of the ancient Philistines (despite their pseudo-historians' futile attempts to convince us otherwise), they are the spiritual descendants of Goliath. They have resurrected not only the Philistine hatred of Israel, but also the ancient Philistine abomination of performing human sacrifices, particularly child sacrifices: preparing their young boys for shahada, a sacrifice on the altar of the new Moloch, the jihad.

In other words, resolving this conflict peaceably by reaching a compromise with Evil and agreeing to co-exist with it, is equally impossible as co-existing with Nazism was.

So what's to be done? Radyshevsky rejects the standard "transfer" solution of the Israeli far-right, and instead lays out the Jerusalem Summit approach, which we've seen before: offer Palestinians money to leave, allow them to remain as non-citizens in a "municipal enclave", or allow them to become citizens if they can prove loyalty




by Rusty Pipes on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 09:43:17 PM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Blog Against Theocracy!
It's that time a year again.  It's time for the annual Blog Against Theocracy, April 2-4, 2010.   The prime mover of this blogtacular......
By Frederick Clarkson (1 comment)
Creeping Religious Rightism in the Democratic Party, Cont.
  Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State has an op-ed today at AOL News discussing how, campaign......
By Frederick Clarkson (5 comments)
Invoking Intolerance: Religious Right Throws Fit Over Islamic Prayer In Virginia
Today an imam delivered the opening prayer before the Virginia House of Delegates - and once again the Religious Right is having kittens. Three......
By Rob Boston (1 comment)
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and John Hagee Share Stage as Biden Arrives in Israel
Yesterday (Monday) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to hundreds of Christian Zionists in Jerusalem at an event organized by John Hagee and Christians......
By Rachel Tabachnick (6 comments)
When the Truth Is Shown to Be Lies
It's been a year since President Obama lifted the Bush administration's restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.  Nevertheless, religious opponents......
By Frank Cocozzelli (7 comments)
Repent Amarillo's Spiritual Mapping and Vigilantism
Repent Amarillo, a Texas ministry which refers to itself as an "Army of God,"  is making news for its spiritual warfare and vigilante tactics.......
By Rachel Tabachnick (17 comments)
Whale Tale: AFA Staffer Says Bible Mandates Death For SeaWorld Orca
On Feb. 24, a tragedy occurred at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. A six-ton killer whale known as Tillikum pulled trainer Dawn Brancheau underwater to......
By Rob Boston (5 comments)
A Call to Censor the Religion Blogosphere
Some time ago, I filled out a survey from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in connection with an academic study they were doing......
By Frederick Clarkson (8 comments)
Prayer Warriors of the New Apostolic Reformation Getting Some Exposure
Yesterday Alternet published an article by Bill Berkowitz including an interview with me about the New Apostolic Reformation, or the "largest religious movement you......
By Rachel Tabachnick (8 comments)
Role Models of Remonstrance
I recently called for mainstream Catholics to offer remonstrance -- an earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance against the reactionaries now fomenting......
By Frank Cocozzelli (8 comments)
Ken Starr and Baylor
A few years back I received a letter from Baylor University stating it decided to discontinue its "unclothed anatomical figurine drawing class".  It was......
By wilkyjr (2 comments)
Albert Mohler Is Worried. And He Should Be.
Yesterday, I published a commentary at Women's eNews titled: U.S. Religions Quietly Launch a Sexual Revolution. Its about how the Religious Institute, a progressive......
By Frederick Clarkson (1 comment)
Street Fight: Ohio Clergy Seeks End Of Tax Exemption For D.C. Structure Owned By `The Family'
The infamous "C Street house" is back in the news. A group of clergy in Ohio, aided by a tax lawyer, has written to......
By Rob Boston (3 comments)
U. S. Pastor Publishes Book Comparing the Country to Nazi Germany
Erwin Lutzer, pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, just published a book named, WHEN A NATION FORGETS GOD.  The book contains an endorsement......
By wilkyjr (6 comments)
Revival and Revolt: Inside the Tea Party Nation Convention
We are pleased to welcome Devin Burghart as a guest front pager. Devin's report on the efforts to fuse elements of the Religious Right......
By Devin Burghart (5 comments)

City in trouble for sectarian prayers
The city of Lakeland, Florida has been challenged by Atheists of Florida and the local synagogue for having sectarian prayers before public meetings. ......
ArchaeoBob (0 comments)
The Blind Side's Blind Spot
The hit movie, The Blind Side, is all about the Christian values of being your "brother's keeper." Or is it? ......
John Sheirer (3 comments)
When Christianity is Un-American
Just thought readers might be interested in linking to this article at The Yurica Report: http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Murray_WhenChristianityIs UnAmerican.html ......
TMurray (1 comment)
Violence increasing
I think people should read this article- and realize that the dominionists are becoming more and more violent.  If something isn't done to counter their hate, this country is in deep trouble! ......
ArchaeoBob (3 comments)
His "Freedom" Means Denying Yours - With Your Own Taxes
Referring to recent political skirmishes over the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, Cardinal Francis George called five rocks thrown at empty buildings and the theft of a few lawn signs "quasi-fascism."  He......
bettyclermont (0 comments)
Rome has spoken....Man the lifeboats!
When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, it was widely reported that he preferred a smaller, more obedient flock in his Church. Once again, he is proving those reports to......
bettyclermont (0 comments)
Your children will be forced to shower with gays! (says the AFA)
I've just received the following American Family Association email, which claims that the Obama administration has a nefarious plan to force gays and straights in the US military to shower together ! Donald Wildmon......
Bruce Wilson (3 comments)
Pope John Paul II's Penitential Practices: The Opus Dei Connection
We are pleased to once again welcome theologian William Lindsey as a guest front pager. This piece is crossposted from the new progressive Catholic group blog, The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody. -- FC......
William Lindsey (0 comments)
WallBuilders, Inc., Promoting a dominionist "Christian Nation"
Cherry Hill Seminary Supports Patrick McCollum in 9th Circuit Case Against California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation http://snipurl.com/u8kcj ......
Dragonzmajick (2 comments)
Roeder verdict sparks fears of more anti-abortion violence
cross-posted at dKos Scott Roeder is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of George Tiller.  At the very least, he'll by 75 years old before he can......
Christian Dem in NC (0 comments)
The dark underside of the Latter Rain--a walkaway's view
cross-posted at dKos I read Bruce Wilson's posts on dKos and Talk To Action regarding the "Pray For Newark" initiative with particular alarm.  While Pray for Newark appears to espouse an admirable goal--community empowerment--it's......
Christian Dem in NC (2 comments)
Bishops as Provocateurs
In a thinly-veiled reference to the campaign of President Barack Obama, Archbishop Emeritus of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, charged that Americans are "embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the 'hope,' the 'future' of......
bettyclermont (0 comments)
The Vatican v. Children
Yesterday was not a good day for children seeking justice from the Roman Catholic Church. The internet brought the following news: ......
bettyclermont (0 comments)
Religious bigots control supermarket chain
Well, they've won again.  The religious bigots have forced Publix Supermarkets into bowing to their wishes. ......
ArchaeoBob (11 comments)
Manhattan Declaration is to Theology what Fox is to Journalism
The December 20, 2009, New York Times ran a lengthy article by David D. Kirkpatrick about Robert P. George, "The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker." The occasion was release of George's "Manhattan Declaration" signed by the......
bettyclermont (2 comments)
Merry Freakin' Christmas: I'm Taking Your Stuff, and you Can't Stop Me!
A humorous look at the larger implications of a seemingly harmless holiday tradition. ......
John Sheirer (1 comment)
Lou Engle, September 25, 2007, Los Angeles: "Holywood"
[This is a partial transcription of a sermon/speech Lou Engle, Founder of TheCall gave on September 25, 2007, in Los Angeles. The full sermon is slightly over 63 minutes. This partial transcript is of......
Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Rick Warren Tweet complains my videos of his "Hitler/Lenin/Mao" speech are unfair
It's gratifying to know "America's most powerful pastor" seems to have taken notice of my videos, showcasing Rick Warren's 2005 speech at California's Anaheim Angels Stadium, during which Warren outlined a "stealth" program to......
Bruce Wilson (4 comments)
Blurring Reproductive Rights and the Religious Right
The principle of the Hyde Amendment, which restricted federal funds from paying for abortion back in 1976 -- is now seen as an acceptable, "abortion neutral" position for the prochoice Democratic Party. How did......
Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)
Rick Warren Calls on Followers To Be Dedicated as Followers of Lenin and Mao
[note: for more recent news on Rick Warren, see Rick Warren's Dissertation Advisor Leads Network Promoting Uganda Anti-Gay Bill] Video, below contains audio recording, photos, and transcript from Rick Warren's April 17, 2005 speech......
Bruce Wilson (6 comments)
Julius Oyet Touts The College of Prayer
A new Talk To Action story identifies Apostle and bishop Julius Oyet as a major player in the recent effort in the Ugandan parliament to pass a draconian anti-gay bill. In this video [transcript......
Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Mark Silk on the Hagee / Rodriguez Entente
Mark Silk, at Spiritual Politics has picked up on my notice of the Hagee-Rodriguez embrace and zeroes in on what's certainly one of the most notable aspects: "The key thing to understand about the......
Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
Inscribing Christian Values in our Children Before Birth?
Following the evolution of evangelical discourse as it re-defines homosexuality as evidence of "fallen creation", Terri Murray looks at how the Christian right have shifted their rhetoric to adapt to empirical research showing that......
TMurray (0 comments)
US News & World Report Showcases Creationist Ray Comfort
US News and World Report's Dan Gilgoff has charitably provided evangelist Ray Comfort a media platform in the form of a US News & World "exclusive" through which Comfort defends his efforts to distribute,......
Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Atheist billboard in Central Florida
The organization "Atheists of Florida" sponsored a billboard promoting atheism in Lakeland, Florida.  I, however, have some concerns. ......
ArchaeoBob (4 comments)
Transcript: Billy Graham and Richard Nixon, February 21, 1973
The following is my own transcript of a 20 minute phone conversation between Richard Nixon and Billy Graham, on February 23, 1973. As far as I am aware this is the only publicly available,......
Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
Rifqa Bary being sent back to Ohio now
Well, there's a change in this case.  After the judge gets immigration documents and so on from the parents, he will send her back. ......
ArchaeoBob (2 comments)
The War on The War on Christmas Goes To Pot
The first day of Fall could be considered the official launch date for the annual war on the war on Christmas, which represents a significant part of the the American Family Association business model......
Bruce Wilson (1 comment)
School Officials off the hook
Today it is reported that the judge excused the school officials who violated the agreement they had over separation of Church and State. ......
ArchaeoBob (0 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC. Powered by Scoop